


The Game

by Happyorogeny



Series: The Illidari [13]
Category: World of Warcraft
Genre: Demons, Fun and Games, Gen, Maiev shadowsong mention
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-10
Updated: 2018-09-10
Packaged: 2019-07-10 19:16:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15955784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Happyorogeny/pseuds/Happyorogeny
Summary: Play is an important learning tool.





	The Game

The Illidari had grown well in his absence. He had left a strike team and returned to a small army with a massive influence upon the war against the Legion. They were so many that they could rotate and allow each other to rest, they had entire squadrons of felbats and sabers, they could bring one another through the Rebirth without his guidance. 

His followers had, however, developed some interesting habits in his absence. 

"Tylus always gets to be the warden! I want to be the warden!"

He shifted upon the crystalline warmstone as a number of Sin'dorei hunters glided overhead, squabbling. They smelled of fel and heat, freshly returned from a hunt. Someone spotted him and immediately hissed at their fellows to shush. This merely resulted in every sentence been repeated in an increasingly agitated whisper.

Loud, feral, inept, all descriptions he’d had lobbed at him and his forces by the very same soldiers they’d kept alive in the past weeks. But there were many fools in this world. They remade themselves to hunt demons. No easy trial, and it left a person a distilled version of themselves. They had much energy and a strong will. Even veteran hunters remained exuberant. Of course they would bicker amongst themselves, test their strength at every possible opportunity and be prone to excitement and noise. He preferred to see them in high spirits. A silent hunter was usually a sorrowful one, one that had started to listen to their demon. 

"Fine, you be the warden, and I'll be the judge."

"They don't have a judge, they just grab you."

He stretched and curled onto his side, propped his head upon his head so as to better observe. The warmstone was just flexible enough to move with him, taking the weight of his wings. He rumbled contentedly. Jace and Tylus really had outdone themselves with this design, heated from within by arcane magic and tiered so as to fit many demon hunters at once without them all having to pile on top of one another. 

He had claimed the largest platform in the centre, as was his due. 

Travelling between worlds to fight demons often left them cold and irritable, inclined to snipe at one another. For the last two days he had battled upon that wretched ice planet with his elite forces, finally driving a powerful shivarra coven to their deaths. Allari and Kor'vas were dozing together on the far side of the stone. Vandal and Feralus pressed back to back in the opposite corner, talons twitching in response to some vivid dream. Falara shivered under a dozen blankets, and Izal had spread out her wings on the stone so as to warm up quickly. Voiceless Salesh had come without prompting to stand guard over them all, perched upon a spur of rock and staring into the night sky. 

They all startled as Nyla leaped into the middle of the camp, having wrapped herself in a random assortment of armour and a blanket. He was briefly pleased to see them scatter in opposite directions. Anyone attacking them would be forced to choose a single target. But the "warden" came up clutching hapless Sa'liah, uncanny in her ability to locate Legion prisons but so clumsy that no one dared to send her on a mission alone.

"You're under arrest!"

"For what?" She sliced through her armbrace in an attempt to escape only for Nyla to grab onto her wing. 

"Being a demon hunter!"

Well, they weren't wrong. And play was an important part of developmental reaction. The muscles moved before the mind. Illidan rumbled approval as Sa'liah whacked her captor with her wing. She had remembered to use the spurs, so as to slip into the gaps in the armour. Very good. 

"You don't have any jurisdiction here! You can't arrest me in a city!"

"Camp isn't a city! It's a temporary structure! Besides, the public has a number of accusations!" With this the "warden" turned to the other demon hunters, inviting them into the game.

"Reckless gliding," someone called. 

"Disturbing the peace."

"Aggravating the deathknights."

"Debauchery."

"That's not a crime!" She flushed a furious shade of indigo as the crowd giggled. 

"It is in Stormwind!"

"For general menacing!"

"I have never menaced any generals! Never! Not one!"

This rapidly degenerated into a discussion as to whether Maiev was a general, and thus a general that had been menaced, before a near universal agreement that Maiev was a menace to all that knew her.  
This clarified, Sa'liah was dragged off with much wailing and lamenting to "prison"- a large wooden crate someone had borrowed off the human soldiers and never given back. Nyla proceeded to quite accurately mimic a warden by squinting at passersby and leaping off to inspect suspicious corners. 

And now a second stage to the game swung into action as three of the hunters who had escaped this "warden" gathered atop a nearby tent with the plain intention of rescuing their companion. Illidan stretched and called out to Nyla. 

“Move the crate. The wardens often change prisoners about in their cells.”

She cackled at the thought of further antagonizing the would-be rescuers and lifted the box, only to find Sa’liah had dug an escape tunnel and was halfway out already. Nyla grabbed onto her ankle, much to the screeching entertainment of the crowd. Tylus threw himself off the tent to knock Nyla over, and Kor’vas roused herself to dash forwards and crouch over Sa’liah, shadowmelding so as to disguise the smaller hunter. 

Good. He had endured the vault alone. All his attempts to escape had been by his hand and his will alone. But the Illidari, they wouldn’t suffer as such. Even trapped within the fel crystals of the wardens vault they had shared their dreams with one another, could see one another through the walls, had even been able to draw some of their fellows back from demonic temptation. 

No harm in practicing such an escape. But if it was to be any use, they had to be battling more than one warden. He nudged Feralus awake, and the hunter peered at him blearily. 

“Go aid Nyla in holding onto her prisoner.”

No point in having them practice out here, in tents that could be easily knocked over. Prisons were built in stone. Perhaps one of the many shattered temples around the island would make a decent replica. But for now, he feared their practice would be cut short. The fel pulsing behind him had the distinctive signature of a portal, enough that all the Illidari stopped in their games and turned as one towards the incursion. 

No rest for the wicked, he thought with faint amusement, and opened up a portal right above the demonic forces. 

There was nothing quite as startling as a warglaive to the head, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed this come find me over on tumblr!


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